The Business Process That Only One Employee Understands
When critical business processes depend on one employee's knowledge, ordinary absences can become disruptive. Here's how to reduce that risk.
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Every workplace seems to have someone who knows how everything works.
They remember which supplier needs a particular form, which customer requires special handling and why a certain spreadsheet must be updated before invoices can be sent.
When something goes wrong, everyone turns to them.
Having experienced employees is valuable. Their knowledge helps a business operate smoothly and deal with unusual situations.
But there's a difference between benefiting from someone's experience and depending entirely on information that exists only in their head.
The distinction becomes obvious when that person isn't available.
When a routine becomes personal knowledge
Imagine a hypothetical Wellington service company where one office employee coordinates incoming jobs.
They know which requests need approval, which technicians handle particular work and how completed jobs should be prepared for invoicing.
The process works because the employee understands it.
But very little has been documented.
When they take leave, another person attempts to manage the same responsibilities.
Suddenly, ordinary questions become difficult.
Which jobs are waiting for approval? Has the customer been contacted? Where are the relevant documents stored?
The company may discover that what appeared to be a reliable workflow was actually a collection of informal habits.
That's not necessarily a criticism of the employee.
In many small businesses, processes develop organically as people find practical ways to get things done.
The risk emerges when nobody makes those processes understandable to anyone else.
Document the process before automating it
Workflow automation can help businesses make routine tasks more consistent.
For example, an approved job could automatically move to the next stage, notify the responsible employee or create a task in another application.
But software needs clear instructions.
If nobody can explain when a job should be approved or which information must be recorded before invoicing, automation will struggle to reproduce the intended process.
This is why documenting the workflow is useful even when a business isn't planning to automate anything.
Start with a real task and follow it from beginning to end.
Record the steps, decisions, responsibilities and systems involved.
Pay attention to exceptions, too. What happens when a customer changes their request or a supplier cannot deliver on time?
Not every situation needs a rigid rule, but employees should understand how unusual cases are handled.
Make knowledge easier to share
A well-designed workflow doesn't need to remove flexibility.
Experienced employees will still make decisions, solve unexpected problems and use their judgement.
The objective is to ensure routine work doesn't depend on one person remembering every detail.
That might involve clearer documentation, shared job statuses, standardised forms or better connections between applications.
Some steps may be suitable for automation once the underlying process is consistent.
Others should remain manual because they involve decisions that require experience or careful consideration.
It's also worth reviewing workflows when responsibilities change.
A process that worked for three employees may become confusing when the team grows to ten.
Regularly examining how work moves through the business can reveal problems before they cause serious disruption.
A reliable process should benefit from experienced people without becoming impossible to operate in their absence.
At Software Logic, I help New Zealand businesses explore workflow improvements, software integrations and practical automation.
If your most experienced employee took two weeks off tomorrow, which everyday process would everyone suddenly struggle to complete?
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Have a question about your business? Talk to Liam.